chapter 196 part 2
The next second after jumping out of the spaceship in his spacesuit, Clark changed into Superman behind a small meteorite, intending to repel this Unidentified Flying Object.
Superman: "This helmet is a bit troublesome. Maybe I can..."
After changing into his suit, Superman, wearing the helmet, felt his vision was somewhat obstructed. He then took a deep breath, removed his helmet, and held his breath in the vacuum of space.
Flying in front of the UFO, Superman tried to stop its attack, only to find that the craft was protected by a Force Field, making it difficult for him to get close.
Seeing this, Superman didn't hesitate and immediately turned to the rocket carrying Lois. He used his super-speed to push the rocket out of the ray's range.
After witnessing this, the alien in the UFO wasn't angry. Instead, he said that he had other plans for Earth.
Subsequently, in the story that followed, the bald, green-skinned alien was seen inside his craft, taking a tube and charging many bottles. Then, he activated some kind of targeting device, aimed it at Paris, and pressed a button in his hand. In that panel, Paris was enveloped in an orange light.
In the distance, an American airplane flying towards Paris was approaching, only to find that the landmark city had vanished without a trace.
Pilot: "OMG, Paris is gone!"
Alien: "Very good. Nice architecture. Has a very Earth-like feel."
Meanwhile, on the other side, the alien looked at Paris inside the bottle, a satisfied smile appearing on his green-skinned face. It turned out the alien had released a Force Field that shrunk Paris and sucked it into a pre-prepared bottle.
At the same time, elsewhere.
As Superman was slowly guiding the rocket back to Earth in space, his Super Vision suddenly noticed that Paris was missing from the planet's surface. He then saw the mysterious green-skinned alien in the UFO, gloating over the bottled city of Paris.
In the same panel, the origin of this mysterious alien was also explained.
It turned out this alien's planet had suffered a catastrophe. He now wanted to bottle up Earth's great cities and transport them back to rebuild his homeworld so that he could rule over it.
Seeing the alien continuously collecting cities, Superman was frantic with anxiety, but he also felt helpless, unable to break through the man's Force Field.
During this time, the alien in the craft successively collected many more cities with his device.
Alien: "Not bad, Venice. I like water. What is this, a strange animal with no nose? And what is this long building?"
As the alien continuously shrunk various cities and buildings on Earth, these cities were supplied with oxygen to ensure the survival of their inhabitants. Just then, the alien in the craft had another sudden idea. Looking at the cities in the bottles, he suddenly wanted to test how sturdy Manhattan's bridge was.
Then, under Superman's watchful eyes.
The alien picked up a stick, poked it into the bottle's opening, and wiggled it against the Manhattan Bridge. The sturdy bridge offered no resistance in the alien's hands and was instantly twisted into a bizarre shape.
Alien: "It seems the Manhattan Bridge isn't as sturdy as I imagined."
Looking at the fragile Manhattan Bridge in the bottle, the alien said with some disappointment.
At the same time, Superman in Outer Space saw the alien take out other buildings from the bottle to study them.
It stopped its spaceship, allowing cosmic rays to recharge it. The alien also flew out of the ship and began to move about in Outer Space.
Superman: "Now's my chance!"
Seeing this, Superman quickly seized the opportunity and flew towards the alien, wanting to defeat it while it wasn't protected by its Force Field and rescue the people in the bottles. However, he didn't expect the alien to have a portable Force Field generator. The Heat Vision Superman fired from his eyes was deflected back, nearly injuring himself.
With no other choice, Superman could only throw a stone spike at the alien, but it was obviously useless. Instead, Superman was met with ridicule from the alien named Brainiac.
Seeing this, Superman used his Super Strength, throwing larger and larger rocks at Brainiac and his ship again and again, until he had used up an entire planetoid.
Brainiac: "Haha, it's useless. Your attacks can't even hurt me."
But even so, Brainiac, protected by the Force Field, remained completely unharmed. He laughed mockingly at Superman's futile efforts.
Superman: "I'm running out of air!"
Seeing that his attacks were ineffective and his oxygen was running low, Superman had no choice but to leave. Watching his receding figure, Brainiac taunted him relentlessly.
All of this was witnessed by Lois from the nearby spaceship. Lois was also surprised that Superman would actually flee in the middle of a battle.
Just like that, the rocket returned to Earth. Lois rushed back to the Daily Planet to write about what had happened. She ran into Superman, who had also returned to Earth and changed back into Clark, and told him about the incident.
Clark: "Lois, I'm so glad nothing happened to you. I contacted them to rescue you as soon as I got back to Earth."
Lois: "This isn't the time to talk about the spaceship, Clark. We're in danger! An alien is about to attack Earth! We have to prepare immediately."
Clark: "Prepare? What kind of preparation?"
Lois: "We need to tell everyone to..."
Just as Lois was describing what she had seen in space, the building next to the Daily Planet suddenly began to shake. Then, Clark pointed at a giant pair of tweezers outside and exclaimed.
Clark: "What is that?"
Lois: "It's too late!"
Seeing this, Lois felt a sense of despair. It turned out that, without anyone noticing, Metropolis had also been collected by Brainiac. The scene in the sky made Lois feel that not even Superman could save them now.
But on the other side, Superman, disguised as Clark, didn't think so. His feigned escape in space was actually a ploy to wait for Brainiac to collect Metropolis. Only then could he get inside the spaceship.
Changing back into his suit, Superman tried to escape the bottle, but before he could fly out...
Brainiac, inside the ship, used a particularly hard metal to plug the bottle containing the city of Metropolis.
WHAM—
Superman: "What is this?"
(end of chapter)